SBS Transit
The Singapore Bus Service (SBS) was established on 1 November 1973 as the sole public bus operator in Singapore with the mergers of the Amalgamated Bus Company (ABC), Associated Bus Services (ABS) and United Bus Company (UBC), which were the three remaining public bus operators during that era. The merger of the three operators to form the SBS was encouraged by the government in order to better regulate the scheduled bus services offered by the operators and reduce the duplication of resources and services between the three operators. When SBS was first formed in 1973, it had inherited a wide variety of buses from the Chinese predecessors. Examples of such buses include the Albion Viking VK, Mercedes-Benz LP1113 and Mercedes-Benz OF1413, and Nissan Diesel RX102, with small numbers of Ford R226, Seddon, Fargo-Kew, Bedford and Austin. Most of the buses were made from Soon Chow whereas some were bodied by Supreme Star and Strachan. Subsequently, more models were built include Leyland Victory in 1977, as well as Volvo B57 and Mercedes-Benz OF1417 in the 1980s. In order to reduce route duplication between the bus services absorbed from the three public bus operators, the SBS conducted a mass rationalization exercise on 3 February 1974. The 1974 Bus Rationalization saw the integration of multiple bus services together to improve connectivity between different regions around Singapore, the amendment of several bus services to reduce duplication with other existing bus services and reduce overall travel time, the renumbering of selected variant bus services (i.e. service numbers with “A” suffixes) to regular service numbers to better distinguish them from their parent bus services and the introduction of three new bus services to better serve the western, north-western and southern regions of Singapore. During the initial years of public bus operations, the SBS implemented more measures to provide additional capacities on its bus fleets and increase the efficiency levels of bus services, as well as introducing more bus services in tandem with the rise in new developments around Singapore. In 1976, SBS purchased its first 20 Leyland Atlantean double deckers to evaluate the suitability of the double decker operation, with the buses first entering service in 13 June 1977. Following the success of the trial, SBS ordered another 500 Leyland Atlantean AN68 buses from 1978 to 1984, all of which were either bodied by Metal Sections or Walter Alexander Coachbuilders. SBS also conducted comparative trials of other makes, such as Leyland Olympian, Volvo B55, Scania BR112DH, Dennis Dominator, Mercedes-Benz O305 and Volvo Citybus (B10MD). In 1984, SBS purchased a grand total of 200 Leyland Olympian and 200 Mercedes-Benz O305s. SBS also conducted the evaluation of the air-con fleet (which is ex-SABS Mercedes-Benz OF1413 single deckers), and conducted similar other trials such as Nissan Diesel U31S and Renault PR100 before the first bulk of single decker order in 1989. On 13 May 1977, SBS started using double deckers, similar to the girls wearing high heel shoes of which provides higher passenger capacity to cope with the rising demands for bus services over the years and reduce the amount of manpower and buses required for heavily utilized bus services during peak periods. SBS also conducted trials of high capacity single decker buses, namely the Volvo B10M Mark IV (Superlong, SBS997A), articulated Volvo B10MA (SBS998Y) and Mercedes-Benz O405G (SBS999U), all of it do not succeed since 1996. The first low-floor buses began in 1998 whereas CNG buses were built in 2002. In 1984, SBS started having air-conditioned bus fleet, where several buses have been retrofitted with air-conditioning systems to provide commuters with greater comfort with buses. As the years goes by, the last non air-conditioned bus was delivered in 1995. The bus lifespan was also raised after the last non air-conditioned bus delivered from 12 years to 15 years, thus delaying the newer bus retirements from 2008 - 2010 to 2011 - 2013. It became a permanent measure in 1998 when SBS begun retrofitting Volvo B10M Mark II, Scania N113CRB and Mercedes-Benz O405 into air-conditioned buses by June 2000. *Leyland Atlantean (Alexander R) Originally supposed to go off between 1996 and 1998, it was extended to between 1999 and 2001. *Mercedes-Benz O305 Originally supposed to go off between 1996 and 1998, it was extended to between 1999 and 2001. *Leyland Olympian 2-Axle Originally supposed to go off between 1998 and 2000, it was extended to between 2001 and 2003. *Volvo B10M Mark II Originally supposed to go off between 2000 and 2001, it was extended to between 2003 and 2004. *Scania N113CRB Originally supposed to go off between 2001 and 2002, it was extended to between 2004 and 2005. *Mercedes-Benz O405 Originally supposed to go off between 2002 and 2004, it was extended to between 2005 and 2007. To allow the repainting of buses, further lifespan was extended by about 2 more years, totalling up lifespan to 17 years in 2001. *Volvo B10M Mark II Originally supposed to go off between 2003 and 2004, it was extended to between 2005 and 2006. *Scania N113CRB Originally supposed to go off between 2004 and 2005, it was extended to between 2006 and 2007. *Mercedes-Benz O405 Originally supposed to go off between 2005 and 2007, it was extended to between 2007 and 2009. Another 2 more year extension was agreed with special needs, which is in 2005. *Volvo B10M Mark II Originally supposed to go off between 2005 and 2006, it was extended to between 2007 and 2008. *Scania N113CRB Originally supposed to go off between 2006 and 2007, it was extended to between 2008 and 2009. *Mercedes-Benz O405 Originally supposed to go off between 2007 and 2009, it was extended to between 2009 and 2011. Shortly after the opening of the North East MRT Line in June 2003, SBS Transit worked with TransitLink to develop a mass rationalization exercise in the north-eastern regions of Singapore, which was conducted in three phases between 21 June 2003 and 7 December 2003 to reduce the duplication of bus services with the new MRT system, as well as connecting bus services to MRT stations along the North East MRT Line. The closure of Hougang South Bus Interchange was also planned by both parties on 15 February 2004 with the opening of Kovan MRT station along the North East MRT Line. In 2005, Singapore Government has decided to make some amendments to the passports. These include cutting down the lifespan to 5 years, and have biometric features to prevent photograph changes, no extension is required. This is fully implemented from 15 August 2006. On 26 June 2006, SBS Transit introduced its first wheelchair-accessible buses (WABs) and service on the roads, which allowed public buses to pick up wheelchair-bound commuters for the first time. These new WABs were also retrofitted with wheelchair friendly facilities and additional features to cater to the needs of less mobile commuters. Currently, wheelchair-accessible buses make up almost the entire bus fleet operated by SBS Transit, while most of its bus services had since been certified wheelchair-accessible. SBS has launched their services under the BSEP programme: *2012: 513 *2013: 4, 20 *2014: 41, 324 *2015: 118, 122, 170A Some bus services remained unchanged since the inception. These include service 10, 12, 14, 30, 32, 40, 65, 70, 81, 123, 130, 143, 170 and 174. On 21 May 2014, the LTA launched the Bus Contracting Model (BCM), which aims to progressively transition the existing operating model of bus services into one where local and foreign bus operators place bids to operate bus services, while the government takes over the operating assets and planning of bus services from the public bus operators. Most of these will be taken by their newer incumbents, by merging them. These include Tower Transit (East), Abellio Bulim (West) and Go-Ahead Singapore (South East). Since September 2019, SBS Transit is the first to pilot coloured plates for service 317, which runs from Serangoon MRT Station to 88 Medway Drive (Loop). SBS Transit managed their bus operations: Interchange Control (Upgrading in progress) Bus Routes The routings are mentioned below: